Analysis On Liang Shu-ming’s Idea Of "Three Cultural Directions"

Liang Shu-ming has been called“the Last Confucianist”. Meanwhile，he has beenregarded as the founder of Chinese modern new confucianism. The theory of“Three CulturalDirections”formed the basic frame of all his ideological System and established his highstatus in modern Chinese thought history.His theory of“Three Cultural Directions”was born in the Republic of China Periodwhen was the introspection period of“Western learning Spreading to the East”. There were somany Chinese scholars who had made various forms of reflection and consideration about theworld cultures in order to make Chinese culture be ranked among them. By combining theconfucianism of Confucius，Mencius and Wang yang-ming，buddhist philosophy andBergson’s philosophy of life，Liang put forward the Three Cultural Directions which treatedconation as the origin point of culture. Namely, requirements of advancing forward was thefirst direction of the culture basic spirit，requirements of itself，harmonic and middlebrowwere the second direction of the culture basic spirit，requirements of turning and backwardwas the third direction of the culture basic spirit. These three directions corresponding to westculture，Chinese culture and India culture respectively. Base on these thoughts，he made thebold prophecy about culture——the future development of the world culture would be theRevival of the Chinese Culture.About the Chinese culture，he discussed it’s nationalism from the viewpoint ofinternational status with other cultures and endow it with the possible worldwide significance.But his theory also faced a lot of suspicions. For example，from the diversification viewangle, how the monism cultural view basing on oriental standard confront thewesternizationists ones. There appears more alikeness among the cultural theme between thewest and Chinese culture tradition after the modern transition，but this kind of alikeness cannot be regarded as the witness of reversion of the west culture. In addition，the tangle betweenmodernization and anti-modernization was also a problem can not be avoided.Enlightenment of the thought of“Three Cultural Directions”is that we should combineall kinds of results before we can understand the essence well，and then find the right way todevelop our culture. Nowadays，Chinese culture is in the transformation period in which theopportunities coexists with challenges，arguments about cultures will exist for a long term，westernization and traditional rejuvenation theory will continous be the important topic for scholars.Liang Shu-ming’s positive attitudes towards Chinese culture and his culturalself-salvation consciousness offers a great deal of reference for actual development of theantiquity nation. To understand Liang’s Three Cultural Directions dialecticly，develop itsadvantages and avoid disadvantages has profound significance for developing harmonioussocialist cultural construction.